Arbor Brewing Espresso Love | Arbor Brewing Company

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The beer is near black with a thin beige cap that quickly fades to a thin layer. Aromas of espresso, coffee beans, chocolate, molasses, dark fruits. Nice flavor. Not in the upper tier of its class, but still enjoyable. The body is a tad thin. Strong coffee presence. Light bitterness in the finish. Overall, pretty good.

Not thick or heavy-looking but very dark brown, this stout has a solid brown head with sparse bubbling that tightens as it compacts to foam and leaves spotty lacing.
Coffee grounds and cocoa powder takes precedence in a mildly roasty malts backbone, and a sweet and thick whiff of baked brownie comes in at the end.
The coffee is in the flavor but the sweetness that made the aroma so nice is buried underneath char and tang. These aren't overbearing, but they do take charge over the better flavors. Roast goes into a not-unpleasant ashy finish.
The body is lighter and spritzier than desired. Some smoothness comes out as the spritz eases down. The end of every sip is slightly thin. Overall, it works, but if this stout had more depth and richness, it would be better.

$2.29 single bought pretty randomly off the shelf. Poured into a shaker pint. Let's hope this is good.

Appearance: Pours incredibly chunky with a bunch of floaters that mostly become sediment. Huge amount of yeast at the bottom. The color of the brew is a brown/black color. Small tan head bubbles down fairly quickly. Very little lacing on the glass. Meh. Average at best, I'd say.

Smell: I know it seems odd to say, but it smells watery. Watered down, actually. Wet coffee grounds. Almost a dirt sort of aroma. Just a general roastiness. A slight bit of sweetness coming from somewhere. It sounds like it smells brutally awful, but it's not that bad, to be honest. It's just not as appetizing as some other stouts.

Taste: Playing off the smell. Coffee ground sort of flavor more than actual drinkable coffee. By that, I guess I mean there's a sort of dirt character in there. It tastes gritty, without having any actual grit. A subtle dark fruit kind of sweetness that's in many darker brews as well, though I can't pinpoint it. The mouthfeel is the biggest disappointment here, I think, as it's rather thin with a fairly high carbonation -- it drinks more like a porter than a stout, the latter of which I expect to have a thick, creamy, drinks-like-a-meal kind of quality.

Not bad, but not great. This brew needs a bit of fine tuning. The thing that really surprises me is that this costs more than the Publican Porter by Short's that I just had, but it's considerably less enjoyable. I would not be opposed to having this beer again, but it's fairly average overall.

Picked up a single bottle along with a Point St. Benedict's Winter Ale. Pours dark with a dissipating head and smells of nuts, chocolate, fruit, and toast. The taste is smooth, and the flavor is bready, nutty. Tastes mildly of fruit and oatmeal... An initial licorice taste succumbs to a smooth and rich coffee bean flavor. A nice breakfast stout to enjoy around the holidays